The 10 Most Popular Audiotuts+ Posts of All Time

What are the best Audiotuts tutorials ever published? Which posts do readers go back to time after time, even years after they were written? Which questions and topics do audio guys and girls keep searching about? We'll tell you. Here are the 10 most popular Audiotuts+ posts of all time.

These posts are the actual ten most-visited sites as reported by Google Analytics. Given that we've posted almost 1,600 times from 151 authors in almost four years, these posts represent the topics and questions you readers are most interested in. Think of them as the cream of the crop. They're worth exploring, reading and digesting. Enjoy!

"Ever heard a song by T-Pain on the radio and wondered how the robotic vocal effect is achieved? By the end of this tutorial, you will own the autotuning sound that is used on so many pop records right now."

Written in July 2008, this post has been the most popular on the site for quite some time. Not only is there a lot of interest in learning how to autotune, many of the comments to the post also debate the validity of the technique. Is it cheating to fix someone's vocals. Is the effect overused? Does it actually make the song sound better.

But whether you love autotune or hate it, there is no debating that this tut has attracted a lot of interest!

"Mastering your tracks can be a bit of a minefield and is often seen as the domain of the professional. However, if your tracks are just for demo purposes, a DJ set or even use on the net, you may want to tackle the job yourself. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to master a track quickly and easily. Mo Volans shows you how…"

This track was also written in July 2008. Audiotuts' first month produced some very popular posts! Besides being great tutorials, they have also had a lot of time to attract interest.

In this tut Mo gets down to the basics of mastering by doing it quickly. Actually, the slightly controversial "15 minutes" in the title was added by Skellie, the talented editor of the site at the time. If you're hoping to understand the mastering process, this is the best tut to start with.

"What would it take to tempt you to grab an iPad? These 25 apps might just whet your appetite."

When iPads were first announced, we were a little surprised that they ran iOS rather than OS X as we were expecting. That led us to question how useful they would be for producing audio. But shortly after they were released, we covered the first audio apps to appear in the app store.

Although this article was written in May 2010, and a lot more audio apps have been released since then, it continues to be a regularly visited post. And besides the 25 apps mentioned in the article, you'll find plenty more in the comments.

"The wobble bass, used frequently in the Dubstep genre, is a sound that well, wobbles! It consists of a low pass filter with a LFO assigned to the cut off. That may sound extremely complicated, but in actual fact it’s quite easy to do and master. You can find examples of this technique used in Benga’s 'Drums West.'"

Two topics that are always popular on Audiotuts+ are sound design and Dubstep. This tut combines them both. If you're an FL Studio user, and love creating your own synth sounds for your Dubstep tracks, this is a must-read.

"In a recent 'Open Mic' we asked you, 'Which music-related sites do you visit regularly?' This article is a summary of the great suggestions given in the comments to that article. You can make the list even longer by commenting on this article."

This is our first comprehensive roundup of audio sites to visit around the web, written in November 2009. Since then our readers have continued to add to the list in the comments. More recently, we've begun the huge task of expanding the list piece by piece. Check out The Monster List of Audio Sites to see our progress.

"Making music is perhaps one of the most expensive hobbies in the world—that is, aside from tasting truffles. When you’re looking to set up a decent home studio, it’s hard to find a way to stay within budget without ending up with a terrible sound. Here are ten options to minimize expenditure while still getting a decent sound out of your system at the end of the day, by buying smart when it comes to one of the most important types of studio equipment: microphones."

Microphones attract a lot of interest. Written by former Audiotuts+ editor Joel Falconer in July 2008, this roundup of useful yet affordable microphones remains useful today. For more opinions on microphones, make sure you check out the 70+ comments.

"Being a musician can be expensive. With musical instruments, equipment and software you normally get what you pay for, and we want to sound good! So we pay, and pay big. But it’s good to know you can get some things for free."

There's something about the word "free" that attracts attention. Especially in a field like audio, that has the well-deserved reputation of being expensive.

Although you usually get what you pay for, these apps give you an inexpensive way to get started with audio. Besides the free apps, a few non-free yet inexpensive options are mentioned, both at the end of the article, and in the comments.

"Mixing and mastering make or break all of the hard work you previously put into recording your musical masterpiece. They allow you to process and balance your tracks together in a pleasing final form that will hopefully be listened to by millions. The following 10 tutorials contain techniques that will get you mixing and mastering like a pro."

There's a lot of interest in mastering on the site. And this article rounds up a bunch of good mastering tuts has received a lot of attention. We'll update it later in the year to include the great mastering tuts that we've published since then.

"Persuading a problematic vocal recording to play nicely with the rest of your mix can seem like a futile task. Well-recorded vocals and poorly-recorded vocals both need to be correctly prepared, and the processes we’re going through today will help you turn your untreated vocal take into a polished and commercial sound."

This tut, written in September 2008, is a great overview about how to process vocals well in Logic Pro.

"In many ways, a film’s soundtrack is every bit as important as the actors, dialog and everything else that go into making a movie. Imagine if, instead of “Stayin’ Alive,” John Travolta strutted through the opening sequence of Saturday Night Fever to the sounds of “Anarchy In the UK.” OK, bad example, because that would have been pretty awesome also, but still, totally different movie if that happens. Here is a look at 25 of the greatest film soundtracks of all time."

Adam Brown wrote some interesting - and often controversial - articles in the first year of the site. This one, written in October 2008, is the one that has drawn the most attention.

Besides attracting a lot of traffic, this post may well have the most comments of any Audiotuts+ post. After all, everyone loves a good soundtrack. And audiophiles love to argue about them!

So, that's our Top 10. Still hungry for more? Keep exploring... here are the ten next-most-popular: